The Wakers
by Raisins-and-Kleenex
Summary: When a demon pair stops time, only seven creatures are left awake, including the two that stopped it. Memories of Hybras haunt them, magic is going wild, and time needs to be started again... before it's too late. Pretty much on hiatus/dead...
1. Enter: The Chorus

The branches of the maple tree swayed drunkenly, pushed this way and that by the wind. Their newly acquired leaves rattled and threatened to fall, and yet somehow remained attached to their wood parents. Two small, red figures were there in the tree, but only if one were looking for them. A male and a female, sitting tensely. It was going to be a fine day for a romantic picnic, or a walk in the hills. But they weren't here for the yellow jonquils, the grassy highlands, or the fluffy sheep always found on the Scottish lands. What they were here for would not come until just before dawn.

_Dong_. The Clock chimed once. Artemis Fowl awoke from his uneasy sleep, looking anxiously around the room. He turned on the light, and started pacing. The realm he had just exited, the realm of dreams and unreality, still haunted him with its reality. He could still see Abbott's sword piercing Holly's chest, could still hear the _snick_ it made as it entered her flesh, could still smell the acrid scent of her blood pooling around her.

_Dong_. The Clock chimed for the second time. Holly Short, tossing and turning from a frightening dream, was awoken by her alarm clock. She got out of bed, checked the time, groaned, and started her shower. As she washed, she let the water run over her body, melting away the anxiety she felt. Her skin felt contaminated by the ashes of the demon island, as if she could never truly disconnect herself from that place. The place where she had almost died.

_Dong._ The Clock chimed for the third time. Qwan thrashed in his bed and fell off, the sudden thump of his landing Awakening him. He had been falling through the air, pushed by the traitor, becoming stone…

_Dong._ The Clock chimed for the fourth time. No1 sat up in bed, breathing heavily. Memories of Abbott still haunted him, and of the demon island. He had been a rabbit, endlessly chased through dirt tunnels by innumerable demon claws…

_Dong_. The Clock chimed for the fifth and final time. Beckett Fowl, asleep next to his brother, blinked owlishly as he woke from a deep sleep. Still sleepy, he cast his young eyes around his room, afraid that the monster from his dreams had somehow found its way here in the dark. He remembered the slick hallway, the fun he and Miles had had sliding on it in their socks. Then, him, sliding to far and slipping on the first step. The thrill of cold fear that had tingled in his feet as they hit open air, and then the fall, down the stairs, to land awkwardly on his back, and Artemis there immediately…

The first rosy fingers of dawn pushed their way above a series of hills to the East. The man in the tree started chanting, the woman rocking back and forth and cackling madly. Their eyes shone a bright, silvery blue, and a wind picked up around their tree. The sun resolutely kept coming, but it slowed and, as the chant increased in intensity and volume, stopped altogether. The mantra did not slow, though, but rose and rose until it resounded in the countryside, and then abruptly stopped. The male fainted dead away, but the female caught him before he fell out of the tree, crooning over him, a mad gleam in her eye.


	2. Two Brothers, Both Alike in Dignity

Beckett felt something akin to a shock wave pass through his body, and he shuddered at the unknown. Casting his eyes once more around his darkened room, he tried to shake Miles, to wake him up so he would not have to spend this dark night alone. But Miles would not wake. Not only would he not wake, he would not move – he was frozen, as solid as a statue and nearly as dead. Frightened, Beckett pushed away from his brother until he was at the edge of the bed. He cast nervous glances at the darkness of the floor, and weighed the strangeness of his brother's sleep to the frightening prospect of going all the way to Mother and Father's room in the dark. He compromised, and decided to visit Artemis. His room was closer, and he was more likely to know how to help. Older brothers knew everything.

Beckett took a deep breath, and hurled himself off the edge of the bed. He pelted out of the room, running into a little trouble with the closed door, but frantically got it open eventually. Hurtling down the hallway at a speed he never seemed able to accomplish in the yard, he managed to make it to Artemis's room in less than thirty seconds. Again, he had trouble with this door, but the darkness was overwhelming and as he struggled with the handle, a panic attack coming on, it opened abruptly from the inside and Beckett tumbled in.

The light was frightening, and blinding. He sat in a little huddle on the floor, waiting for his eyes to get used to the light. When he lifted his head, he saw Artemis sitting on his bed, looking as amused as it was possible to be when you were Artemis Fowl II. "Did you have a bad dream?" he asked his younger brother, not unkindly.

Beckett didn't say anything, but shook his head furiously. Interested, Artemis cocked his head to the side. "Afraid of the dark?"

Beckett managed a half nod, half shake. It meant he was essentially turning his head in a circle, but Artemis understood what he meant. He waited patiently for Beckett to regain his words. The younger boy got up from the floor and joined his brother on the bed, snuggling against him. Artemis pulled away at first – he had never been one for small children – but his younger brothers were something else entirely. He put one arm around the younger boy, still waiting to hear what the matter was. He checked the clock – 5 in the morning.

"It's Miles," Beckett whispered quietly, calmed by the presence of his older brother. "He won't wake up."

Artemis knew better than to ask if Beckett was sure it wasn't just a dream, or suggest that Miles was very deeply asleep. Beckett didn't work that way. Instead, Artemis stood up, Beckett holding tightly onto his hand, and left the room. They headed down the hall towards the twins room, where the door was still open. Artemis went in, shook Miles gently. The boy did not respond. A small frown creased Artemis's brow, and he tried again, with more force. The boy did not wake, would not even respond to his touch. As if someone had replaced Miles with a wax statue, except wax statues did not have the heat of a living body.

Beckett was standing right next to Artemis' leg, as if the presence of an older brother banished the monsters for a three foot radius, enough to protect little boys. Artemis didn't want to frighten him by telling him nothing, but he knew nothing that he _could_ tell Beckett. Instead, he took him by the hand and said, "Let's go talk to Mother and Father, alright?" Beckett nodded furiously, and huddled closer to Artemis. This made it slightly awkward to walk, because there was a small child tripping up his right leg. Artemis sighed softly, and found the small flashlight Angeline had put in the boys room, even though they never remembered to use it. He clicked it on, and Beckett sighed with relieved fear. The little circle of false light was a comfort on the way through the dark mansion.


End file.
